WIMAUMA, Fla. — After dealing with unprecedented flooding for the area, some residents in Wimauma are coming together and asking county commissioners to get to the bottom of what is causing it.

What You Need To Know

  • The Wimauma Community Plan Advisory Council is asking the Hillsborough BOCC for a moratorium on new development for nine months to do a comprehensive infrastructure study

  • There is also a petition residents can sign asking for a moratorium on new development to address flooding concerns

  • The Hillsborough BOCC's Planning Commission will meet Thursday at 6 p.m.

Residents want county commissioners to pause new development for nine months until a comprehensive infrastructure study is done to see how much more Wimauma can handle, and at what cost.

Augie Grace is part of the Wimauma Community Plan Advisory Council, or Wimauma C-PAC. The group sent an email out to all of its residents, asking them to reach out to Hillsborough County Commissioners before Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting.

“They have eight applications before them on Thursday evening at a public hearing," Grace said. "We’re asking them to pause all further development and all future development until we can do a comprehensive infrastructure study that would look at the water problems, the flooding problems, the overcrowding at schools, the traffic, all of the issues involved before we start going any further with future development."

Many Wimauma residents experienced flooding after Debbie, and some of their homes were condemned because of it.

They believe it could be because of all the new development there.

A petition asks for a moratorium on development and approval of new projects in Wimauma until a study is done looking at flood patterns and the infrastructure.

“People who have lived here all their lives are saying their land is being flooded every time there’s a big storm, they’ve never had this kind of flooding before, it’s a very complex issue,” said Grace.

Grace hopes commissioners listen to the residents of Wimauma, and they hope they’re all willing to work together to protect where so many people call home.

“We’re not against all growth, we just want to have some sort of controlled growth and we want to be able to look at the impacts of what the growth will be,” said Grace.

The Wimauma C-PAC says developers have submitted plans to the county that would double the capacity of houses. The meeting is set for Thursday at 6 p.m.